And there we are, the KDE team has released KDE Software Compilation 4.4, formerly known as, well, KDE. Major new features include social networking and online collaboration integration, the new netbook interface, the KAuth authentication framework, and a lot more.

B) 12% is still nowhere near large enough to "make that defense worthless."

C) The point that "Win98 was used despite being horrible" is worth underscoring: a large chunk of the populace will keep on using Windows forever, regardless. Even if it gives them cancer, they'll keep using Windows. Because they're locked in, because the cost of migration is prohibitive, because they really, really don't want to have to learn something new, because they're highly risk-averse, because they have lots and lots of Win32 apps, whyever, they'll keep on using Windows until the heat-death of the universe.

B) 12% is still nowhere near large enough to "make that defense worthless."

Yes it is because there is clearly a subset of the population that is willing to try an alternative operating system and yet Linux has not been able to increase its market share from about 1999. Most Macs sold are Macbooks so that means there have been more people willing to switch to a $1000+ computer with a different operating system than run Linux. Windows 7 also had more market share than Linux before it was released. The harsh reality is that most geeks don't like using Linux on the desktop. It's a myth that it is the choice of programmers or techies.

C) The point that "Win98 was used despite being horrible" is worth underscoring: a large chunk of the populace will keep on using Windows forever, regardless.

Yes but that doesn't excuse the poor performance of Linux on the desktop.

Because they're locked in, because the cost of migration is prohibitive, because they really, really don't want to have to learn something new, because they're highly risk-averse, because they have lots and lots of Win32 apps, whyever, they'll keep on using Windows until the heat-death of the universe.

Who cares what their motivation is. Linux can't win over people like me and Kaiwai who used to run Linux. It can't hold on to the users that it gets.

Linux has had plenty of chances to take market share including when people hated 98, when xp was first released, the 32->64 hardware transition, when vista was first released, and finally netbooks.

I think the core problem has been the FOSS ideology. Linux is designed to be a PITA for proprietary hardware companies and ISVs. When you're small you need to build partnerships, not embrace an ideology that declares potential partners as enemies.